Sister Virginia Morris of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
October 23, 1937–January 15, 2021
Mary Virginia Morris was born to Charles and Mary Morris on October 23, 1937 in Harrisburg, PA. She grew up in St. Francis of Assisi Parish and in his letter to Mother Mary Francis, her pastor recommended Mary Virginia for entrance as a girl of solid piety and a frequent communicant. She made her first profession of vows at the age of 19 as Sister Charles Marie. Later she went back to her baptismal name, and we knew her as Ginnie or Virginia.
The list is long of the missions where Virginia served. She bounced from the North to the South to the mid-West and back a total of nine time over the course of 16 mission assignments. She served in Norfolk VA, Newark NJ, Jackson, Tucker, Fayette and Oxford in Mississippi, Southington and New Hartford in Connecticut, Phenix City and Holy Trinity in Alabama, and Greensburg and Philadelphia here in Pennsylvania. Her earlier missions were mostly in parishes and schools doing religious education. She did a lot of work with the Girl Scouts, and was even a Cub Scout Den Mother during her time at Holy Rosary Indian Mission in Tucker, MS.
Sister Virginia obtained a Master’s degree in religious education from Seattle University in 1976, and after that her work shifted more to adult programs and outreach. She began working with Cursillo retreats in the Diocese of Biloxi and soon discovered that retreatants and team members were seeking her out for spiritual counsel. It seems as if the Holy Spirit called her to retreat ministry and spiritual direction through the persistent requests she was receiving. Virginia is one of few who have served at all three MSBT retreat centers in Philadelphia, Alabama and Connecticut. In a number of her annual reports she expressed her heartfelt opinion that the ministry of our retreat centers flows from our MSBT charism. As a result, she felt accountable to the whole community and resisted an individualistic approach to the work.
Everyone who knew Sister Virginia knew of her love for nature, especially birds. She grew up fishing with her father, and continued the hobby whenever possible. She is quoted in newspaper interview during her time at Holy Trinity, saying, “I guess one of the things I like about fishing is that it’s meditative. There is a presence of God that you experience in nature.” Sister had a missionary zeal to bring hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and at Holy Trinity she found new ways to do this. She incorporated her training as a spiritual director into her work with gardening volunteers. Letters in her file attest to the lives she touched in this way. One such garden minister wrote, “Through her patience, kindness and love of God, she helped me grow spiritually.” A co-worker from Fayette Mississippi wrote, “You planted flowers that made springtime real. You put out seeds that brought the chirping of the birds. I will never hear a bird sing without thinking of you.”
A hallmark of Sister Virginia’s service was her inclusive approach to her work. She was thoroughly grounded in the MSBT commitment to engage the laity in the work of the Church. In 1968, the executive director of the Girls Scouts in Mississippi referred to Sister as a “leader-friend” who the Choctaw girls desperately needed. Sister drew in local people wherever she served and sought to build up their own abilities to lead. When requesting a mission change in 1984, she wrote, “I am comfortable with the ordinary, hard-working people who need to believe more in themselves. I have a way of helping these kinds of people grow in confidence of themselves and in the realization that God cares for them personally. I truly believe that lay people are willing and able to be responsible for their parishes. It is in blending the different styles [of Church vocations] that we will come up with a more holistic sense of parish.” These words of Sister Virginia could have been written by our founder, Father Judge.
Sister Virginia lived the Cenacle virtues of humility and patience. She lived in more and more pain as rheumatoid arthritis took its toll, and after two years serving at Trinita, she reluctantly asked to slow down. She came to the Motherhouse in 2001. She continued in spiritual ministry for as long as she was able. I want to close with her own words from her letter requesting final vows in 1961. “I wonder why God ever chose me to live such a life as this. Knowing the future as he does, God certainly knew how imperfectly I would live this religious life. Yet, in His goodness, He still granted me this holy privilege.” Sister Virginia reflected the Sacred Heart of Jesus throughout her life. May she rest in peace.
Everyone who knew Sister Virginia knew of her love for nature, especially birds. She grew up fishing with her father, and continued the hobby whenever possible. She is quoted in newspaper interview during her time at Holy Trinity, saying, “I guess one of the things I like about fishing is that it’s meditative. There is a presence of God that you experience in nature.” Sister had a missionary zeal to bring hearts to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and at Holy Trinity she found new ways to do this. She incorporated her training as a spiritual director into her work with gardening volunteers. Letters in her file attest to the lives she touched in this way. One such garden minister wrote, “Through her patience, kindness and love of God, she helped me grow spiritually.” A co-worker from Fayette Mississippi wrote, “You planted flowers that made springtime real. You put out seeds that brought the chirping of the birds. I will never hear a bird sing without thinking of you.”